gmertca, , ?|emp, an& JUapoleon American Trade with Russia and the Baltic, 1783-1812 BY ALFRED W. CROSBY, JR. Ohio Sttite University Press $6.50 America, IXuaata, S>emp, anb Napoleon American Trade with Russia and the Baltic, 1783-1812 BY ALFRED W. CROSBY, JR. On the twelfth of June, 1783, a ship of 500 tons sailed into the Russian harbor of Riga and dropped anchor. As the tide pivoted her around her mooring, the Russians on the waterfront could see clearly the banner that she flew — a strange device of white stars on a blue ground and horizontal red and white stripes. Russo-American trade had irrevocably begun. Merchants — Muscovite and Yankee — had met and politely sounded the depths of each other's purses. And they had agreed to do business. In the years that followed, until 1812, the young American nation became economically tied to Russia to a degree that has not, perhaps, been realized to date. The United States desperately needed Russian hemp and linen; the American sailor of the early nineteenth century — who was possibly the most important individual in the American economy — thought twice before he took any craft not equipped with Russian rigging, cables, and sails beyond the harbor mouth. To an appreciable extent, the Amer­ ican economy survived and prospered because it had access to the unending labor and rough skill of the Russian peasant. The United States found, when it emerged as a free (Continued on back flap) America, Hossia, fiemp, and Bapolcon American Trade with Russia and the Baltic, 1783-1812 America, llussia, iicmp, and Bapolton American Trade with Russia and the Baltic, 1783-1811 BY ALFRED W. CROSBY, JR. Ohio State University Press Co'pyright (c) 1965 by the Ohio State University Press All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 65-18735 The illustration reproduced on the title page is from "The Naval Chronicle for 1805: Containing a General and Biographical His^ tory of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom; with a Variety of Original Papers on Nautical Subjects" (London: I. Gold, 1805), XIV, facing 224. acknowledgments A N AUTHOR'S DEEPEST GRATITUDE goes to those who had the fortitude to read his work in manuscript and wh o were kind to its creator. Robert E. Moody and Frank Novae of Boston University examined and offered valuable suggestions about this book whe n it was still a Ph.D. dissertation. Harry L. Coles, whose scholarly courtesy is one of the warmer attractions of the Ohio State Uni­ versity, read it and helped it toward publication. I owe a great deal to those who gave me bibliographical help, such as M . V. Brewington of the American Neptune, Jack Bat- tick, George Brooks, and Lance Trusty. I must also acknowledge m y debt to the archivists and librari­ ans of the Boston, Harvard, and Ohio State University libraries, the Boston Public Library, the Boston Athenaeum, the National Archives, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Salem Custom House, and the Peabody Museu m and the Essex Institute of Salem, Massachusetts—men and wome n wh o spun out a million man-hours in preparation for, among other things, that in­ conspicuous moment when I wrote thefirst word of this book. Lastly, let m e thank the editors of the American Neptune and the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, wh o have allowed m e to use as parts of this book articles of mine that have appeared in their pages. ALFRED W . CROSBY, JR. Contents I. The Beginnings 3 II. Hemp, Flax, and Iron: The American View . 14 III. Hemp, Flax, and Iron: The Russian View . 27 IV. A New Flag for the Old Trade 40 V. Making and Learning the Rules 46 VI. Trade in Time of War 72 VII. Alliances and Embargo 91 VIII. Fraudulent Trading 109 IX. The Danish Problem 125 X. "A Bull-dog among Spaniels" 150 XL Adams in the Ascendancy 170 XII. The United States, Darling of the Baltic . 195 XIII. The Challenge of 1812 230 XIV. TheWarsofi8i2 246 XV. Postscript: Levett Harris 276 Appendix: Chronology of Events Affecting Ameri­ can Trade with the Baltic and Russia, 1789­ 1815 280 Bibliography 287 Index 311 Vll 3mmca , "Russia, fiemp, and Bapoleon American Trade with Russia and the Baltic, 1783—1812 1 Wai Beginnings IY COUNTRYMEN, SIRE," John Quincy Adams, United States minister to Russia, said to Alexander I, Tsar of all the Russias, "are so familiarized with the ocean that they think not much more of crossing it than of going over a river." 1 Th e date was the eleventh of October, 181 o, and Adams and Alexander, their paths having crossed on the mall in front of St. Peters­ burg's Admiralty building, had stopped to chat and had hit upon the subject of the amazing American bent for travel. The subject came easily to their lips, for in that year more American vessels arrived at Kronstadt, the port of St. Petersburg, than vessels of any other nation, including Russia herself.2 An d in August of the following year, 1811, Russians would stand amazed on the quays and piers of that seaport and stare out at one hundred vessels moored in their harborflying the Stars and Stripes.3 But it was not just a bent for travel that brought Americans to Russia. It was a passion for trade. In the years just before the American and Russian wars of 1812, Russia was one of the most important markets of the United States. In 1811, the America, Russia, Hemp, and Napoleon United States sent one-tenth of all her exports to the shores of Russia.4 (And, incredibly, our 1811 exports to Russia exceeded our 1958 exports to the U.S.S.R . by approximately one and a half million dollars.) 5 Although not of transcendent importance until the first decade of the nineteenth century, Russo-American trade began very early. As was true of so much of colonial trade, the first page of its history is written on a leaf of Virginia tobacco. In the latter half of the seventeenth century, Virginia's tobacco pro­ ducers found themselves sinking into an economic slough with a modern-sounding name : over-production. In 1681, Governor Thomas Lord Culpeper of the colony wrote, "It is commonly said that there is tobacco enough in London now to last all England five years. Ou r thriving is our undoing. ." A n expansion of market would solve the problem, of course, but expansion where? Governor Culpeper suggested: "Free importation into Russia would revive our drooping spirits, for w e want nothing but a vent." 6 Sadly, however, tobacco was forbidden in Muscovy by both the government and the church. Very severe punishment, such as the slitting of the noses of snuff users, had been dealt out to those addicted to tobacco.7 In spite of this, the use of tobacco was spreading; but like most other "westernisms," it was mak ­ ing slow progress among the vast conservative and devout majority. It seemed that Virginia would have to look elsewhere for "a vent" unless Muscovy were turned upside down—which is exactly what Peter the Great did in the decades around 1700. Peter had a profound effect on trade between America and The Beginnings Russia. H e encouraged Russians to trade with foreigners. H e encouraged local industry. H e drove through the Swedes to the sea and gave Russia several good ports on the Baltic. The innovation of Peter's which was most immediately apparent to Americans was his admission—yea, even encouragement—of tobacco importation. H e had two motives. On e was to raise more money for his expanding government, army, and new navy. His father had briefly allowed the use of tobacco and had made the tobacco trade a state monopoly. This seemed a good money-making scheme to Peter, especially with the addition of an excise tax on tobacco. The second motive was to encourage the use of tobacco as a small detail of his life-long campaign to westernize Russia. If Westerners enjoyed an occasional pipe, then it would be best for all if Peter moved through a con­ stantly replenished haze of smoldering tobacco.8 O n thefirst of February, 1697, Peter issued an ukase extend­ ing his blessing to the importation of tobacco. Imports of Brit­ ish tobacco mounted to 87,000 pounds in 1698, and bounded to a peak of 1,450,000 pounds in 1700.9 Trade between Amer ­ ica and Russia had begun. This trade suffered from the beginning from competition with cheap, smuggled Dutch tobacco, but the trade was impor­ tant enough for Americans to quickly protest to Queen Anne's government in 1705 at the news that Englishmen and English machines were going to Russia to process raw tobacco there. Th e Americans feared that the Muscovites, once in possession of the skills to transform tobacco from the raw leaf to a smok­ able product, would use the nearby Circassian or even home­ grown tobacco rather than American.10 Queen Anne's government thought well enough of the to­ America, Russia, Hemp, and Napoleon bacco trade to Russia to order that all "persons whatsoever forbear to send any persons into Muscovy versed in the mystery of spinning and rowling tobacco or any instruments or materi­ als for the same .. as they'd tender her Majesty's displeas­ ure and will answer the contrary at their perils." n All was to no avail. Russian imports of English tobacco fell off sharply after 1700, and by the third quarter of the century Russia was exporting considerable amounts of tobacco herself.